If you only read one comments thread today, let it be this one at Precocious Curmudgeon, wherein David Welsh re-captions the cover of Gerard & Jacques and solicits suggestions for manwha.
Tokyopop’s new site offers blogs to all comers, and it didn’t take long for teh stupid to arrive. An amazing number of people start up a blog and then announce in the very first post that they have nothing to say. (Not a problem around here, where we seldom run out of opinions.) Also, if you’ve been meaning to hook up your scanner and send in some fanart but haven’t gotten around to it yet, no need to do a special post just to tell us! We’ll wait! And yes, it is unethical to post other people’s art in the fanart section. But here’s my favorite so far:
Does anyone know what the fourms, in the corner of the page is for?
Well, whatever you do, don’t click on the link to find out!!
It’s funny, I’m not that nice to begin with, I admit that…but as you likely read in my blog, a lock-down of comments was the only thing keeping some posters from a rightful dose of ‘shaken fantard syndrome’. I’m still trying to figure out the ‘friend’ thing. The ‘popping’ thing I have down pretty well…
And yeah, ‘fair-use’ art posting is out of control. I’m wondering when the scanslations groups are going to get their own section in the borg-cube?
I think TP has the right idea in the direction of new media marketing/social internet but they don’t have it all together.
Myspace of manga is what theya re aiming for I think…
The problem is that absolutely everything goes up on the front page of the blogs. Look, this is there right now:
You know, that’s not what I go to Tokyopop’s website to see. Meanwhile, it’s not that easy to find their book listings any more. I actually like some of the new features, like the columns and the interviews, but they need to organize it better and get a moderator.
Even then… I’m a believer in keeping it simple. Tokyopop is a publisher, and if they want to be something else they should make another website.
I find this situation very similar to Shojo Beat having color pages. The majority of people that responded did not care for it too much. And then Viz announces at SDCC that the color pages will be a permanent edition.
If this is the same thing, Tokyopop will probably release some announcement stating the new design and features was a brillant idea and will be a permanent edition for their website.
Hopefully this myspace thing is just another fad with Tokyopop because I find it hard to find their book releases too.